The Gathering has banned Dockside Extortionist in Commander

In one of the biggest shake-ups Magic: The Gathering’s Commander format has ever seen, the Commander Rules Committee has announced that several cards are now banned. These include Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, Nadu, Winged Wisdom, and, most controversial of all, Dockside Extortionist.

Wizards of the Coast announced this news in an official blog post, as did the Commander Rules Committee on its own website. This is the first time in quite some time that the CRC has banned cards from the Commander format. The last time this happened was back in 2021, when Golos, Tireless Pilgrim was banned. These are also the first official bans since the death of Sheldon Menery, who was considered the unofficial head of the CRC.

Of course, the reasons for banning each card are detailed on both sites. For example, the CRC explained that Dockside Extortionist was banned because of its potential for “egregious snowball effects.” Anyone who plays Commander knows that the card has the absurd potential to quickly put players ahead of everyone else, giving them a huge advantage.

The CRC admits that it has shied away from doing anything about the card for years, claiming that the card “scales well with the power level of the table.” But now it seems the committee has had enough of the explosive launches.

Magic: The Gathering has also banned Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt and Nadu, Winged Wisdom.

The CRC goes on to explain why the other cards were banned, starting with Jeweled Lotus and Mana Crypt, simply because they have the potential to give you a ton of mana as early as turn two, which also gives players massive immediate advantages. Both are pretty powerful cards in this format, and it’s pretty easy to see why the ban happened.

As for Nadu, Winged Wisdom, the CRC explains that the ban on this card is simply because it can take the fun out of the game, as one player can monopolize all the time in the game. It can be really annoying to play against someone who uses Nadu, Winged Wisdom well, and that’s exactly why the card was recently banned in Modern and Legacy as well.

That’s pretty much all the explanation there is, although the CRC does state that it will not ban Sol Ring for fear of “changing the identity of the format.” We’ll have to wait and see how these bans change the format in the future.

Magic: The Gathering

Created by Richard Garfield in 1993, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) has become one of the largest collectible card games in the world. Taking on the role of a Planeswalker, players build decks of cards and battle against other players. More than 100 additional sets have added new cards to the library, while the brand has expanded into video games, comics, and more.